And Dodgers general manager Paul DePodesta began speaking the consoling GM dialect that says we've found a good place for you - yeah, right - as the joy sapped out of Dave's expression and Tricia began saying, "Where? Where? Where?"

Dave mouthed the word "Boston," and that's when the crying started, and he would say, "It was a shock to all of us," and she would say, "It was a bad day. At the time we thought it was the worst thing that could have happened."

*****

"Until you put on that Red Sox uniform and experience those fans and that ballpark on an everyday basis . . .," he said and paused, then said, "It changed my whole attitude and perception. It became real. It's something I wish everybody who puts on a baseball uniform could experience. It would almost be a disservice for me to try to describe it."

*****

So the crestfallen Tampa-bound baseball player turned up in the 2004 Red Sox clubhouse, probably the best place for a crestfallen anybody to alight. He immediately noticed uncommon warmth. He saw a team that actually breakfasted and lunched together, and he'd eat with folks such as Gabe Kapler, Doug Mirabelli, Kevin Millar, Tim Wakefield.

*****

When Tricia went into labor in mid-September, a potential complication arose as the team found itself in Tampa and "I broke down at the ballpark," Dave said. "I was supposed to play that night. And the guys actually were there with me supporting me, and I'd just gotten there. Curt Schilling and Kevin Millar and Jason Varitek came in, and they said they arranged it so I could fly [a private plane] home."

*****

At six pounds, 12 ounces, Emme Roberts joined the world ultimately without complication on Sept. 19 - born in Boston, in the far-flung corner of the country.

Should she so choose 17 years from now, she might find herself the recipient of a scintilla of favoritism from various Boston-based college admission-board members.